PITTSBURGH — Bob Huggins, West Virginia University’s men’s basketball coach, was charged Friday with driving under the influence stemming from an incident on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
In a news release Saturday morning, Pittsburgh Police said that just before 8:30 p.m., officers from Zone 1 observed a black SUV on Merchant Street off of Ridge Avenue in the middle of the road, blocking traffic. The driver's side door was open and the vehicle had a flat and shredded tire.
The news release identified the driver as Robert Huggins, 69, of Morgantown, W.Va. Later Saturday, WVU confirmed that the coach was the driver.
“Officers directed the male driver on how best to move off the road so they could help with the flat tire,” the city news release said. “When they observed him having difficulty maneuvering the SUV to allow vehicles to pass, they activated their lights to pull him over. Upon questioning, officers had strong suspicion to believe the male was intoxicated.”
The driver was asked to exit the vehicle to perform standard field sobriety tests, which he failed. He was placed in custody without incident and transported for further testing, according to the news release.
A criminal complaint concerning the arrest said that Huggins was administered a breath test, which showed that he had a blood-alcohol content of .21. A reading of .08 is considered being too intoxicated to drive in Pennsylvania.
The criminal complaint also said Huggins exhibited numerous signs of intoxication, including erratic driving maneuvers when he was instructed to move his vehicle. An officer wrote in the complaint that Huggins’ eyes appeared glassy, his speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol.
Empty beer cans were found in the vehicle, which was leased trough WVU, the complaint said.
The report also alleges Huggins failed several physical field sobriety tests, could not accurately articulate where he was, how he got there or how his tire got shredded. The report said Huggins answered “Columbus” when officers asked where he thought he was. He told police that he had been at a basketball camp with his brother in Sherrodsville, Ohio, and later said he had a sister-in-law who lives in the Pittsburgh area.
After he was charged with driving under the influence, Huggins was released pending a preliminary hearing at a later date.
In an joint statement from the university and its department of intercollegiate athletics, WVU said:
“West Virginia University is aware of an incident last night involving Head Men's Basketball Coach Bob Huggins, for which he was charged with Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in the City of Pittsburgh. We are gathering more information and will take appropriate action once the review is complete,” it said.
Multiple university and athletic department officials did not respond to requests for further comment Saturday.
In May, the university disciplined Huggins after he used a homophobic slur to refer to Xavier University basketball fans as he was a guest on a Cincinnati radio show. He was suspended for three games, his pay was reduced by $1 million (to $3.2 million, according to ESPN) and his contract amended to become a year-to-year agreement. He was also required to attend sensitivity training.
“During the conversation, I used a completely insensitive and abhorrent phrase that there is simply no excuse for — and I won’t try to make one here,” Huggins said in a statement following the incident. “I deeply apologize to the individuals I have offended, as well as to the Xavier University community, the University of Cincinnati and West Virginia University.”
A joint statement at the time from WVU Athletic Director Wren Baker and President Gordon Gee indicated that the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach would be on thin ice for the foreseeable future.
"We have made it explicitly clear to Coach Huggins that any incidents of similar derogatory and offensive language will result in immediate termination,” read the statement.
Read both statements in full at WVUSports.com.
The latest DUI charge was not Huggins’ first.
In 2004, he was charged with driving while intoxicated in the Cincinnati suburb of Fairfax, Ohio, while he was the head coach at the University of Cincinnati. He pleaded no contest and resigned the next season after ongoing disagreements with then-university president Nancy Zimpher sparked in part by the DUI charge.
Huggins then took a year off before accepting the head coach position at Kansas State University in 2006. After a year there, he returned to WVU, his alma mater, as head coach and now is the winningest active coach in NCAA Division I basketball.
Huggins last made non-sports news in Pittsburgh in 2002, when he suffered a heart attack at Pittsburgh International Airport during a recruiting trip.
